GitSync for Plastic SCM with Native Git Protocols and Visual Studio 2012 Support

GitSync for Plastic SCM, a native Windows based distributed versioning control system (DVCS) provides support for https:// and git:// native Git protocols without any need for intermediate translations and also integrates with Git repositories.

It enables you to leverage the ability of Plastic SCM to push and pull code changes to not only GitHub but also Codeplex, BitBucket or any Git server using native Git network protocols and integrates with Visual Studio 2012 that enables you to work with all features using a single Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

GitSync for Plastic SCM has an ability to clone a Git repository and later push changes to it. As a developer, you will be able to create branches and push them to Git or create branches on Git and pull them in. It also effectively handles concurrent conflicts which enables developers to work on the same branch on the two systems and reconcile changes, just as they would when using a pure Plastic SCM environment or a pure Git one.

Plastic SCM includes a distributed branch explorer that enables you to explore remote repositories as if they are local including drawing their changes together with the local ones in the diagram. Moreover, developers will be able to track code with Xdiff (cross-difference) and Xmerge (cross-merge) which identifies code fragments that have been moved and link them for easy navigation.

It enables you to invoke methodhistory from the annotate views in the GUI including support for Eclipse, multiple languages, improved C# and also provides an ability to track refactored code between files.

"It is important to highlight that GitSync is not a different product, it is offering Plastic SCM to the Git community so they can use Plastic on the client side then push/pull changes to any flavor of Git server. Since Git tools on Windows are weaker than they're on MacOS X and Plastic SCM specially shines on Windows, we think this is a great way to help Git users and also to ease the Plastic SCM adoption," says Pablo Santos, President, Plastic SCM.

InfoQ had a chat with Manuel Lucio Dallo, Product team member to know more about Plastic SCM.

InfoQ: Does GitSync for Plastic SCM improve productivity?

With Plastic as a Git "client" your development will be faster, you will spend less time in source control and more at important thing, coding. Plastic SCM is 100% graphical and intuitive. Complex and regular actions that requires time and obscure commands in Git are done in Plastic in a couple of clicks.

InfoQ: For what purpose, GitSync for Plastic SCM can be used in real world scenario?

Imagine that your team is using Git, so you are forced to use Git. Now you can use Plastic SCM in your dev laptop, then, push and pull from Git but your development is done under Plastic SCM. This is specially useful in teams that want to test Plastic in the production environment without spending resources in an evaluation process.

There will be also developers that are simple not comfortable using the command line as the only Git interface, here is where Plastic can help the developer simplifying the workflow with a real and powerful GUI, then, once developers realize Plastic is as powerful, or more, as Git and much easier to use we expect to have a good numbers of teams fully migrating to Plastic SCM.

We don't have minimum resources needed. A regular, nowadays, laptop will do the work. The server, in windows, requires the .NET Framework 3.5 as the default database backend is SQL Server CE.